Improvement in street-pavements



I. MERCHANT. Street-Pavement.

No. 199.562. Patented Jan. 22, I878.

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IRA MERCHANT, or BLOOM-INGTON, ILLINoIs.

IMPROVEMENT IN STREET-PAVEME TS.

Specification formingpart of Letters Patent No. 199,562, dated January 22, 1878 application filed 7 December 17, 1877.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, IRA MERCHANT, of Bloomington, in the county of McLean and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Street-Pave ments; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being made to the accompanying drawing, forming a part of this specification, and in which' Figure 1 is a top or plan view of my improved street-pavement. Fig. 2 is a transverse section of the same. Fig. 3 is a transverse-section of my improved pavement as applied to country-roads.

This invention relates to improvements in the class of pavements for streets, turnpike and other roads covered with broken or other hard and durable stones, and more particularly to that class of pavements in which certain port-ions of the same are especially adapted to bear the weight of carriages or other vehicles and receive the action of the wheels; and the invention consists, essentially, in street-pavements having one or more tracks formed of stones laid lengthwise of the street, for bearing the weight of vehicles and receiving the action of the wheels, in combination with the intermediate surfaces of the pavement between and outside of the lines of stones, formed of stones set edgewise, the intermediate surfaces of the street made rounding, and the outside surfaces of the street made declining from the sidewalks toward the tracks, all as will be hereinafter more fully described.

In the drawing, A represents one or more series of stone tracks designed for the wheels of vehicles to run upon. These-stones forming the tracks should be six or eight inches in thickness, or of sufficient thickness to sustain most any weight brought to bear upon them, and they are laid lengthwise of the streets, and in sand or gravel trenches, in order to provide for proper drainage under them. These series of stone or wheel tracks are also laid so as to form the lowest portions of the street, for also forming the gutters of the street. A y

B represents the intermediate portions of the surface of the street or road between and outside of the stone or wheel tracks A. These portions B of the pavement are formed of fiat stones set edgewise in sand or gravel, in the usual manner, and which brace the wheeltracks.

Between the wheel-tracks thepavement is rounded off, and to the outside of the wheeltracks the pavement is made declining from the sidewalks toward the wheel'tracks, all as clearly shown in Fig. 2, thus allowing the water to be carried toward the center of the street and into the wheel-tracks, which would be kept smooth by the rolling of the wheels of vehicles and the constant travel thereon. I

In the country, where only a single track is used for vehicles, there would be two gutters in the middle of the road; but in cities or towns, where two or more tracks are used for vehicles, there would be two or more gutters formed on each side of the center of the street.

A portion of the street nextto the sidewalks could be macadamized, if desired.

By the abovedescribed street-pavement the gutters near the sidewalks are dispensed with, and the street, on an ordinary grade, will be nearly self-cleaning.

By using the wheel-tracks for the gutters, the street or road need not be rounded as much as on ordinary streets, while, the wheeltracks being laid in trenches leveled up with sand or gravel, and the road-bed being shaped like the surface of the pavement, perfect under-drainage is accomplished.

.In cities or towns, where the wheeltracks are laid on each side of the center of the street, said center of the street can be opened up for gas or other pipes without interfering with travel.

Roads or streets provided with the abovedescribed pavements will sustain almost any weight in vehicles, and these be moved with less exertion to the horses, and thus prevent the wearing of the .roads due essentially to the. action of the wheels of heavy -laden vehicles.

Having thus fully described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- The herein-described street-pavement, consisting of one or more series of stone tracks laid lengthwise and forming the lowest por- In testimony that I claim the foregoing .I tions of the street, the intermediate portions have hereunto set my hand this 4th day of between and outside of the stone tracks foamed December 1877.

of stones set edgewise and the interme iate surfaces of the street made rounding, and the IRA MERCHANT outside surfaces of the street made declining Witnesses:

from the sidewalks toward the stone tracks, THos. SLADE,

substantially as and for the purpose specified. GEORGE BERTRAM. 

